Macho Man!

More from that LAT-Bloomberg poll: Clinton pollster Mark Penn has recently been predicting that Rudy Giuliani's "tough guy" style will turn off female voters. Sure enough the new poll shows that 36 percent of male GOP primary voters like Rudy--but just 27 percent of female ones. Every other major candidate reverses that formula, faring better with the gals than with the guys. Fred Thompson, for instance, gets 18 percent of the women and 13 percent of the men. Romney runs 14-7 women-men and McCain 14-11. (The exception is Mike Huckabee, who runs at 11 percent with men and 4 percent with women, which I can't readily explain.)

This gender gap is certainly a red flag for Rudy. But if I were a rival of his I'd still envy his commanding national lead.

Also, one oddity from the poll: GOP voters were asked whether they would support a third-party conservative candidate should Republicans nominate someone who supports abortion and gay rights. Thirty-four percent said they would. But then a plurality among that very same 34 percent said their preferred candidate is... Rudy Giuliani! (It's Giuliani 26, Thompson 19, McCain 10, Huckabee 9, Romney 7). Clearly plenty of conservative voters still have a lot to learn about Hizzoner.